UIC adds two to Class of 2016, grabs one more verbal

First-year coach Steve McClain‘s second recruiting class at UIC is starting to take form. The Flames received National Letters of Intent from two players in the early signing period in addition to receiving a verbal commitment from three-star small forward K.J. Santos.

The two high schoolers who officially joined the UIC program are 6-foot-4 guard Tarkus Ferguson and 6-foot-8 wing Jordan Blount.

Ferguson averaged 15.0 points, 7.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists as a junior at Althoff High School last season.

“Tarkus is a young man that played for a state championship a year ago and his team will be preseason number one in the state this year,” McClain said in a release. “He comes from a great culture of winning both at his high school and in the summer AAU program.”

Blount, an Ireland native, is currently prepping at Spire Institute in Geneva, Ohio. At the 2015 European Championships, posted 25.4 points and 9.2 rebounds per game, and so far at Spire Institute he has recorded 19.2 points, 6.6 assists and 4.0 assists per contest.

“Jordan is a young man who has played internationally against great players,” McClain said. “He brings an unbridled enthusiasm to the game when he plays. His motor is non-stop, and like Tarkus, he can play multiple positions on the team.”

The final addition is Santos, a 6-foot-7 wing who has not yet signed his NLI. Santos is a consensus three-star recruit and borderline top-100 talent. He picked UIC over Iowa, Oklahoma and several other high-major programs.

McClain has been on the job for only eight months, and this is already his third three-star recruit.

If Santos signs his NLI by the end of the early signing period on Nov. 18, UIC will have all its scholarships filled for the 2016-17 season, barring transfers.

Jesse Kramer is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Catch and Shoot. He's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He has had work featured on SI.com, College Insider, The Comeback/Awful Announcing, 247Sports, and The Daily Northwestern.